Reluctant Acceptance
by takari101brakenfur
Summary: When Kaiba is forced to accept Yugi's help he gains a new respect for the dueler.


Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh.

Kaiba glanced up with a scowl at the roller coaster in front of him. It had apparently broken down and there were workers all around it. Normally he wouldn't have bothered standing around it, but Mokuba thought it would be a good idea to stick around just in case. In case of what Kaiba didn't know. He certainly wasn't going to be able to help them. If he knew how to fix the damn coaster he wouldn't have hired someone else, would he?

Just then he spotted Yugi and his group of friends heading towards the Blue-Eyes Dome. Since he didn't want to talk to them he decided it was best to keep out of their sight, so he turned to walk back to his office. He hoped that the workers could handle themselves without him hovering. Unfortunately, before he could take more than two steps, Yugi spotted him. Yugi had a quick word with his friends and walked over.

"Hey there Kaiba! How have you been?" Yugi asked the CEO of Kaiba Corp .

Kaiba sighed, knowing he couldn't get out of this one. Turning around, he decided to cut right to the chase. "What do you want Yugi?"

Yugi looked a little hurt at the blunt statement, but it passed quickly. "I was just curious about what you were doing. I generally don't see you out of the office unless you're dueling."

Kaiba frowned a bit at the roller coaster. "If you must know, this roller coaster is in need of repair, and thirty minutes ago I was asked to oversee the repair of it." Perhaps it would be a good idea to go up there himself...

Yugi glanced up at the roller coaster. From this viewpoint all that could be seen were the seats of the coaster and the various workers running around. "What exactly is wrong with it?"

"The ride is wobbling a bit more than usual and people are beginning to complain. Although I'm starting to think either the workers are lazing around, or its become a bigger issue than originally anticipated because they should have been done by now."

Yugi merely shrugged his shoulders, not really knowing how to help, before turning to the Blue-Eyes Dome. "Well, me and my friends were planning on dueling in the arena. Wanna join us?"

"No thanks. I have much better stuff to do than hang with your friends." Kaiba stated, before turning away from him.

"Alright, if you change your mind though you know where to find us." With that, Yugi left.

Kaiba scowled again at the roller coaster. Deciding that if the workers were being lazy he'd just fire them, but instead of heading towards the coaster to do just that he headed towards his office. He was distracted by the thought of dueling Yugi again. The thought was appealing, but he didn't really have the time for that. Oh well, back to work.

A month after Kaiba had talked to Yugi at Kaibaland, Mokuba came up with the idea for Battle City V2. They were throwing around ideas for how to get people interested in joining a school centered around dueling. Kaiba wasn't sure how he felt about the idea. It wasn't that he was opposed to the idea. The possibility of getting new players interested was somewhat beneficial, but the time that would need to be invested in it was not something Kaiba, or Mokuba, had a lot of at the moment. They were busy gathering interested teachers for the school, as well as spreading the news of it.

Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, Yugi offered to help. Kaiba was a bit surprised, figuring he didn't know how to go about setting up a tournament like this one, and turned down the offer. Yugi however, was a bit persistent.

"It wouldn't have to be anything too big, just help set up a few things, and maybe monitor a few duels during breaks," Yugi had suggested.

In the end, with a bit of coaxing from Mokuba he gave in, and let Yugi help. It actually worked out well, and the tournament went off without a hitch. Yugi decided to enter with a bit of joke deck (at least by Kaiba's standards) and, being who he is, managed to win, impressing Kaiba a little that he did it by himself without the Pharoah helping him. The kids who entered were thrilled to get a chance to duel the the King of Games, and didn't mind at all that they didn't win.

"See, you're probably glad now that I helped you," Yugi said with a grin when the tournament was over. Although Kaiba hated to admit it, Yugi was right. Even though he had given him small tasks such as handing out duel discs to new players, Yugi had done each task with ease, and at a quick pace that saved time. It had given Kaiba the time he needed to create more locator cards, and get the blimp set up so it could simulate the first Battle City. Yugi had even helped with an incident that Mokuba hadn't been able to get to in time.

Kaiba decided that perhaps he should be giving Yugi more credit than what he had been giving him.

A week after the tournament, Mokuba told Kaiba that he should leave his office for a bit and go outside to enjoy the fresh air because he was driving Mokuba crazy. After being practically forced from his office by his brother, Kaiba found himself walking towards a familiar game store.

He had no idea why he was doing this. He wasn't really in the mood to talk to Yugi, especially if his friends were with him. Yet his legs still compelled him in that direction.

He stopped at the door and peeked inside. Yugi seemed to be taking advantage of the lull in the activity in the shop and was gathering and sorting various games to be displayed. From what he could tell, there were only two other people in the store, and neither of them were actually a part of Yugi's main group of friends. Besides, it seemed they were fixing to leave anyway. It made him wonder for a moment what the geek squad were doing these days.

Kaiba pushed the door open, figuring since he was already here that he would see if they had the Capsule Monsters set that Mokuba was looking for, and glanced around. He spotted what he needed towards the back on the left wall. Perhaps getting this would make his brother happier and less insistent that Kaiba take a break... Unfortunately, it was at that point that Yugi spotted him.

"Oh, hey, Kaiba! Didn't expect to see you here." Of course the game had to be near the aisle where Yugi was shelving.

Kaiba didn't give him much more than a glance. "I came here to get something for Mokuba, that's it."

Yugi acted like he wanted to ask for a bit of clarification, but decided against it and instead continued what he was doing.

After a bit of silence, Yugi decided to speak again, though it was mostly to himself rather than Kaiba. "I haven't really seen my friends lately, as most of them have been busy with other stuff. I mean we still talk and hang out sometimes, such as that time in Kaibaland a month ago, but its been scarce as of late. Battle City V2 was the first in a while we had a lot of fun together."

Kaiba glanced at him. Now that he mentioned it, he hadn't really seen the other three around, at least not in Domino. He had the mutt taking on various tournaments, and heard mention of Tea taking dance classes somewhere else, but hadn't thought much of it. Perhaps that would explain why Yugi had been trying to interact with him more as of late.

"I'm sorry."

Kaiba's head shot up in surprise and looked at Yugi, who was shifting a bit.

"I know you're probably not interested in my troubles. Do you want to come over here so I can ring that up for you?"

Kaiba glanced down at the pack in his hands, which he had briefly forgotten about while he was thinking. He nodded and followed him to the counter to pay. The transaction was handled without speaking a word to each other ,except when Yugi told Kaibai the total. With the pack in hand, Kaiba left the shop.

Maybe tomorrow would be a good time to send him that duel invite.


End file.
